Norway - What's Going On?

Clearly Plumbo were always going to go to the Spektrum; they've got penny whistles, a fab chorus and a schlagertastic key change at exactly the right moment. We're quite happy to have a photo with Tommy Fredvang too; after all his song is written by schlager legend Hanne Sørvaag. There needs to be a bit more effort put in to a dance routine for "Make it Better"; spinning round and round while holding a mic stand in the middle of your song does not count. However Tommy is nice to look at and he's got a nice coat.

But there was a schlager travesty last night when the first finalist was revealed to be Malin. "Crush" is all right and it has a nice "Hello" bit in the chorus, but that's about it. How on earth did that weedy effort get more votes than "Shapeshifter" or "You and I"?

Granted Minni Oh's performance was a bit lack lustre, but for heaven's sake she had pointy shoulder pads and neon lipstick! What's more "You and I" is truly schlagertastic.  Meanwhile Rikke Norman belted out "Shapeshifter" like there was no tomorrow. This would have been a fabulous Norwegian entry for Eurovision. The most exciting bit in "Crush", on the other hand, was when she stood up near the beginning. .

In order to cheer ourselves up after MGP we held a Lord Thomas of G:son song contest which was duly won by "I'm In Love" with "C'est La Vie" coming in second. The Schlagerboys attempts to rig the votes for "Evighet" to storm the score board were thwarted when no-one else voted for it. During the proceedings we stalk-texted Lord Thomas himself under the guise of congratulating him on "High On Love" going to the final last week, but really to ask him for votes. He declined to name his own douze points but did amazingly text back this morning to ask who won.

Schlager Legend! Love Him!